‘Game of Thrones’ Returns in the First Half of 2019

Although we still don’t know exactly when Game of Thrones will return for its farewell season, HBO programming president Casey Bloys assured fans that the show will return in the first half of 2019. Bloys made his remarks during the Television Critics Association press tour (via The Hollywood Reporter). He had little to say about season eight besides that he thinks “it’s pretty great.”

That’s encouraging, given that all we knew up until this point was that the six-episode final season would premiere sometime in 2019. Game of Thrones has been absent from TV screens since the end of season seven in August 2017.

For those hoping to read more into the “first half” window, the first five seasons of the show premiered in April, while season six and season seven premiered in June and July, respectively.

HBO has been tight-lipped about what to expect from the final season of the immensely popular fantasy series. However, we’ll finally learn who will sit on the Iron Throne.

Despite the abbreviated season, the six episodes may be longer than the typical 60-minute runtime. Rumors have suggested that the episodes will be more like mini-movies, which makes sense considering the final episode of the seventh season (also a shortened season) came in at 81 minutes.

HBO hasn’t directly confirmed the length of season eight episodes, as it sounds like much of that depends on cuts made during edits, but it’s safe to say the six-episode season will be much beefier than it initially sounds.